July 23 - We Remember Elvis Auctions

Joseph Tunzi from JAT Publishinh announced the follow-up to the "Viva Las Vegas" release; "Speedway".

We Remember Elvis

The book "We Remember Elvis" was released through the owners of Elvis Presley Birthplace. It is written by Guy Harris, official historian Tupelo, and Sybil Presley, works as a guide in the birth house, and compiles four stories of people who knew the Presleys. The book is only available in the store of the Tupelo birth house.

Heritage Auction

Auction house Heritage published the complete catalogue for the upcoming Elvis auction during Elvis week held in the Memphis Peabody Hotel. The total auction contains 270 lots, ranging from souvenirs at reasonable estimated prices to very expensive personal belongings.

Two items are valued at $150,000. The first one is the contract that was made to set the cooperation between The Colonel and Elvis, the second one is a 4-page handwritten letter from Elvis to his girlfriend Anita Wood when he was in the army. The catalogue also lists a white grand piano that once stood in Graceland.

This instrument was offered various times during large auctions in the past, but has never been sold (minimum bid is $500,000).

Alleged Elvis Embalming Tools Taken Out Of Auction

An array of surgical and other instruments allegedly used in the 1977 embalming of Elvis Presley was withdrawn Thursday from a planned auction after Memphis Funeral Home objected to the auction of property taken without the funeral home's consent.

The objects up for sale in Chicago include rubber gloves, forceps, a comb, eye liner, lip brushes and arterial tubes. The toe tag reads ‘John Doe’, because a fan stole the one reading ‘Elvis Presley’ soon after his death in August 1977.

Funeral home president E.C. Daves said the instruments were taken by an embalmer who kept them for more than 30 years before offering them for sale through Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in Chicago.

The auction was scheduled August 12 and the Elvis items were in two lots valued by the auction house at $8,000 and $6,000.

Daves said the authenticity of the items still is in question. He said the retired embalmer, in his 80s, claimed to have taken the items after Presley's embalming the night of August 16, 1977. But Daves said another employee told him that those instruments had been sterilized and were used again. "There's no way to tell whether (the auction items) are authentic," he said.

Daves said the retired embalmer and his son, who handled negotiations with the auction house, agreed to withdraw the items. He said the funeral home plans no legal reprisals if the items are returned. Auction house owner Leslie Hindman was less final. In an e-mail, she said, "We are in discussions with all parties."

Daves said the funeral home is awaiting word from the Elvis Presley estate on its preferences. The items could be donated to a funeral history museum in Houston. "Or we could destroy them," Daves said. "We're not going to do anything until the Presley estate agrees with it." A Graceland spokesman declined to comment.

A Graceland spokesman declined to comment.

“It’s a disgrace. His everlasting memory should be of his singing, not the gruesome and grubby items used to clean up his corpse,” The Daily Star quoted Elvis’ fan Stewart Dalrymple as saying.